Food Commission minutes: December 2016

Attendees and apologies

Participants

• Julie Fitzpatrick - Vice Chair
• Caroline Mockford
• Donnie Maclean
• Elaine Kerridge
• Robin Gourlay
• Ken MacKenzie
• David Croft
• Davy Milligan
• Pete Ritchie
• Peter Morgan
• Eleanor Cunningham
• Gordon Struth
• Jennie MacDiarmid
• Rose Munenura
• Amanda Fox
• Haylay Forbes
• Pamela Berry
• Catriona Maclean
• Gillian Kynoch
• Jackie McCreery
• Andrew Sutherland
• Ally Dingwall
• Joanne Boyle
• Susan Pryce
• Sam Mckeown
• Fergus Ewing MSP

Apologies

• Shirley Spear
• Jamie Dunlop

Items and actions

1. Welcome and introduction

1.1. Julie Fitzpatrick welcomed Commission members and all guests to the meeting.

1.2. Julie then advised that due to ill health, Shirley was unable to attend.

1.3. The group gave brief introductions to benefit those who had not previously attended.

2. Best practice example

2.1. Ian Smith, Head of Corporate relations at Diageo gave a presentation on the history of Diageo, their environmental sustainability and the various development programs they have in place.

2.2. The group were very interested and had a short discussion.

Action:

• Slides and link to film to be circulated - SG

3. Minutes and actions

3.1. The minutes of the Commission meeting held on 28 September 2016 were agreed as a correct record.

3.2. The group discussed the ‘FAQ’s’ that each subgroup were working on, Julie checked that everyone knew what they had to do and were asked to submit to the SG secretariat to be cleared with the Chairs.

Action:

• Jackie McCreery wishes to join sustainability subgroup. Group to include Jackie in correspondence going forward – Sustainability subgroup
• Subgroups to ensure that SG kept up to date with developments. Proposals do not need to wait until the next meeting. Please email SG with requests with all outputs from the FC being approved by Chairs - ALL

4. Discussion with Mr Ewing

4.1. Cabinet Secretary for The Rural Economy and Connectivity attended this section of the meeting to introduce himself and outline his priorities.

4.2. The group gave feedback and outlined their priorities going forward.

4.3. Regarding the GFN Bill, Mr Ewing saw this as an opportunity to further promote the Food and Drink industry generally, believes it might attract some international attention and that the Food Commission has an important role to play.

4.4. Julie Fitzpatrick thanked Mr Ewing and summarised the work of the Food commission to date.

4.5. There were some questions directed to Mr Ewing, followed by an open discussion which primarily focussed on the Bill.

4.6. Cabinet Secretary Fergus Ewing left the meeting.

Action:

• Investigate food being a strategic objective within the National Performance Framework – Robin Gourlay/SG
• Work up a proposal on the GFN single city idea – Donnie Maclean
• Provide a note to Fergus Ewing and Food Commission at next meeting on budgets & resources - SG
• Fergus Ewing wants to come back to a FC meeting next year. Chairs to invite him to a relevant future meeting – Chairs/SG

5. Scotland Food and Drink’s industry strategy

5.1. Donnie Maclean gave a presentation on Scotland Food and Drink’s industry strategy.

5.2. Followed by an open discussion regarding demand led change to the industry.

Action:

• A policy paper to be produced on better joining up of academia and industry research needs - Peter Morgan, Donnie Maclean, RESAS (SG)

6. GFN Bill

6.1. Amanda Fox began by giving the group a run through of what the Bill could entail along with the processes associated.

6.2. Several members thought it was a good idea that we involve as many people/groups from different backgrounds in order to get diverse contributions to the Bill.

6.3. Amanda Fox then made a suggestion of having the Food Commission lead a summit in Spring of 2017 to invite people to bring their views forward. The group thought this was a good proposal and there is a possibility that a subgroup will be set up to take this forward.

Action:

• Global literature review to inform summit discussion – Robin Gourlay
• Whitespace to be asked to create a language for the summit – Joanne Boyle
• Any ideas on the summit to be emailed in. Any volunteers to be involved let SG know – ALL

7. GFN website update

7.1. Joanne Boyle gave a presentation on the GFN website.

7.2. Discussion followed on the logo and Joanne committed to feeding back to Whitespace.

7.3. A few points were raised in terms of social media and the group thought that we should put some resource into running a Facebook/Twitter account.

Action:

• Full marketing presentation to be circulated – Joanne Boyle
• Social media needs resourced - ALL
• Speak to Whitespace and Marketing colleagues about feedback from meeting on logos etc – Joanne Boyle

8. Interim report and advice to Ministers

8.1. Julie opened the floor for a discussion surrounding the interim report. Julie felt the report should be less formal than the previous and prospective. The report needs to be led by the Food Commission.

9. Environmental sustainability presentations

9.1. Gordon Struth, Scottish Government, gave a presentation on environmental sustainability and the measures in place with regards to farming in Scotland etc.

9.2. Jennie Macdiarmid, University of Aberdeen, Public Health and Nutrition Research Group, gave a presentation on consumption/production and the sustainability of this.

9.3. There was an open discussion and questions followed.

10. Breakout groups and feedback

10.1. Based on the presentations above the Commission members were asked to form 3 groups to discuss one of the selected three topics below and then to provide feedback to all:

• How do we encourage sustainable agriculture in Scotland – producing high quality food efficiently while protecting the environment?
• What additional steps to those already established can we take to reduce post-harvest food waste in Scotland?
• How may we influence Scottish people to consume the ‘right’ amount and type of food?

10.2. Discussion followed including how to take forward the feedback from the discussion and breakout sessions via work streams and sub-groups.

11. Feedback from subgroups

11.1. The environmental sustainability subgroup will take forward actions from today’s discussions.

11.2. Each Subgroup gave an update on their progress.

12. Discussion on what's next and priorities

12.1. The next meeting will be held on the 16th of March 2017. More details will follow shortly. The venue is yet to be confirmed.

12.2. The theme of the meeting will be prosperity.

13. AOB

13.1. Eleanor Cunningham had been approached by the Edible Edinburgh Food Board requesting feedback from the Food Commission and the group were content for the board to be informed on Food Commission activity.

13.2. It was suggested that the Food Commission could be represented or have presence at the Royal Highland Show.

Summary of actions

• Circulate slides from meeting (Diageo, Donnie, Joanne, Gordon Struth & Jennie Macdiarmid) – SG
• Jackie McCreery wishes to join sustainability subgroup. Group to include Jackie in correspondence going forward – Sustainability Subgroup
• Full marketing presentation to be circulated - SG
• Speak to Whitespace and Marketing colleagues about feedback from meeting on logos etc – Joanne Boyle
• Investigate food being a strategic objective within the National Performance Framework – Robin / SG
• To inform future consideration of the Good Food Nation Bill and to inform the proposed summit on Food and Drink a literature review should be commissioned identifying global trends as well as regional and local forces shaping successful food and food policies around the world. – Robin Gourlay
• Work up a proposal on the GFN single city idea. The Group will feed in – Donnie Maclean / All
• Provide a note to Fergus Ewing and Food Commission at next meeting on budgets & resources – SG
• Fergus Ewing wants to come back to a FC meeting next year. Chairs to invite him to a relevant future meeting – Chairs / SG
• A policy paper to be produced on better joining up of academia and industry research needs - Peter Morgan, Donnie Maclean, RESAS (SG)
• Suggestions on how the Food Commission could be represented or have presence at the Royal Highland Show – Jackie McCreery
• Any ideas on the summit to be emailed in. Any volunteers to be involved let SG know – ALL
• Subgroups to ensure that SG kept up to date with developments. Proposals do not need to wait until the next meeting. Please email SG with requests with all outputs from the FC being approved by Chairs - ALL

Food Commission Meeting - Minutes - December 15, 2016.pdf

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